The Centre for Fortean Zoology was founded in the UK in 1992 - nearly 20 years ago. Over the past two decades it has expanded to become a truly global organisation. We opened our American office in 2001, or Australian office in 2009, and now - in our 19th year - we are proud to welcome CFZ New Zealand to the CFZ global family.

Thursday 3 May 2012

It just goes to show even amateurs can still make scientific contributions . The other day I had just taken a break and on returning to my desk found a house fly sitting on my mouse as if still alive. The creature however did not seem alarmed by my reappearance so I became curious and examined it more intimately. It was most decidedly dead but the unusual thing was I had never seen a fly like it. The front end was that of a normal house fly, but the abdomen was entirely different it was striped black and white in a not unattractive manner. The wings also appeared shorter than the ordinary house fly.
I decided this justified further investigating and put the specimen under the microscope for a more detailed view . The stripes were unquestionably part of the thorax, although the poor beast had some kind of fungal infection , which had obviously infiltrated its whole-body, as threads were sticking out between in the abdominal platelets, the white nevertheless showed as platelets themselves.
Not having adequate knowledge in this field I contacted an entomologist with the Department of Conservation, David Voice, On scrutiny of the photographs he said it would take a while for them to get back to me. The following day I received an e-mail from Mr Voice indicating that this fly did express some anomalousness and could I please dispatch it to his department for further scrutiny and analysis. The specimen is now what I hopefully is packed in a safe and protected manner and ready to send to Mr Voice for further recognition and analysis. As any results come through I will keep the blog updated.

4 comments:

  1. Hello mine name is Kayla and i am from texas. I just fount a fly that looks remarkably like yours. at first I thought was a bee but apon further inspection and comparison to an actual bee it was not even close. I've never seen anything like it and was wondering if you have heard anything further about your find?

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  2. I've also found one in Hamilton, New Zealand. Any further developments?

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